50 and 52 Westgate

Pair of townhouses incorporating commercial premises, late C18, possibly 1780 for the woolstapler Thomas Crowther. Reconfigured into a single property early C20 and used as a branch of Lloyds Bank 1926-1980.

MATERIALS: red brick, laid in Flemish bond to the Westgate elevation which also incorporates some stone dressings. Stone slate roof. Late 1920s stone ashlar bank frontage to the ground floor.

PLAN: a mirrored pair of townhouses with carriage entrances through the building at either end of the Westgate frontage providing access to Woolpacks Yard and Barstow Square. The original accesses to the upper floor domestic accommodation is thought to have been off these yards, however, the interior planform of the building has been extensively altered.

EXTERIOR: Westgate elevation (south): The building is of three stories and four bays, the middle two bays each having three windows to both upper floors. Windows have projecting stone cills, those to either end of the elevation on the first floor being round arched with keystones, the arches having stone impost blocks that extend as lintels over blind lancets to imitate Venetian windows. All of the other upper-floor windows have gauged-brick flat arches with stone tripartite keystones, the openings fitted with replaced sash windows. The second-floor windows are shorter than those to the first-floor, being almost square. The elevation is topped by a stone dentil cornice, the roof being low-pitched and hipped with no surviving chimney stacks.

The ground floor has a stone ashlar frontage of a simple stripped classical design installed around 1927 for Lloyds Bank. This has three sash windows to the centre with an ornamented cill band flanked by doorways set in wide openings with plain raised surrounds. Flanking this frontage are the two carriage entrances to the rear yards, these having keystoned basket arches.

Rear elevation: This has a central, three-storey wing that projects by two bays to the rear between the two yards, this range continued by the attached former Woolpack Inn.